3 Basics for Improving Employee Engagement

Improving Employee Engagement Matters
Let’s get back to basics and make your approach to improving employee engagement simple but effective.

Do You Agree?
Can we assume you:

• Are convinced that employee engagement matters?
• Believe, along with the experts, that when employees are more engaged they are more likely to stay put?
• Accept the research that reports that engaged employees—those who experience high job satisfaction—are over 40% more productive and effective than their unengaged counterparts?

Three Ways for Improving Employee Engagement
From that fundamental understanding of how critical employee engagement is to business success, here are three simple, and yet effective, ways to improve employee engagement:

1. Find Out Where You Stand
   To make measurable improvement, you need to identify your current employee engagement levels. How do you know if you are above or below industry standards until you assess where you stand? And how will you track progress if you don’t maintain a system that takes the periodic pulse of employees’ satisfaction with their jobs?

   Find a way to collect real data so you can take action as needed. Check in regularly via surveys, team meetings, and one-on-one engagement conversations. To get data that you trust, be sure you set the stage for open, candid sharing of thoughts and ideas.

2. Prepare Leaders to Lead
   Over and over, we hear that poor managers are the primary reason employees are unhappy with their jobs and leave. Make sure that your leaders know how to lead and inspire their followers to continuously improve. Give them the employee engagement training they need to lead well.

   Offer multiple development opportunities as an investment in their future. The investment will pay off in more productive team members who will, in turn, remain loyal for longer.

3. Ask A Simple Question
   Find out directly what your employees care about and what motivates them. Start with a simple question: “When are you at your best?”

   The discussion that follows will give you an inside track on what your employees like to do, what energizes them, and how you can play to their strengths. Listen carefully for clues on what they’d like to eliminate from their list of tasks.

The Bottom Line
Try this simple 1-2-3 approach to improving employee engagement. You can always add the fancy extras that address specific needs as the icing on the talent management cake.

To learn more about improving employee engagement, download The Top 10 Most Powerful Ways to Boost Employee Engagement.